Subjectiveness of Beer Judging

[Hawkbox]

I've got 9 brews ready for the Vancouver competition.

 

[Nosybear]

Good luck with it! I'm excited - my Ky Common is in the World Beer Cup next month.

 

[Yooper]

Good luck with it! I'm excited - my Ky Common is in the World Beer Cup next month.

That's in Nashville, right? I got invited to judge, but I just can't swing it this year with Portland and Germany coming up.

 

[Nosybear]

That's in Nashville, right? I got invited to judge, but I just can't swing it this year with Portland and Germany coming up.

Yes, near where I grew up. Can't make it either.

 

[Yooper]

Yes, near where I grew up. Can't make it either.

I am retired (mostly) but still work occasionally for what my husband calls "beer and peanut money".

Even without buying the peanuts, I still don't have enough "beer money". Oh, not for beer (which I can make myself.......) but for the beercations and judging opportunities. I need to get a job to pay for my judging, but then I won't have time to judge because I'd be working. so I'd have to retire to have time to go to these events, but then I wouldn't have the money.

I'm judging next month in Chicago for the first round of the NHC. So at least there's that!

 

[Hawkbox]

I just got results from my local competition and want to mention something, in one competition I got 42 for a Doppelbock and in the local I got 23, then for a witbier I got 20 in one competition and 35 in the local.

With such wildly divergent ratings and conflicting statements how do you pull anything useful from these? (As an aside it's kind of demoralizing to get destroyed by your local judges)

 

[Nosybear]

That's a pretty wild swing - what do the judges say in their comments?

 

[Hawkbox]

That's the doppelbock

 

[Hawkbox]

This is the witbier

 

[Hawkbox]

I will admit I like the typed forms a lot better, even if they're hurtful and cruel to me.

 

[Nosybear]

Ouch! But I've seen evaluations like this of my beers and generally, if you approach them with an open mind, find there's some (but not complete) validity. I've also judged and sometimes really good beers get really low scores because they don't meet style guidelines. I notice on the "Overall" section of the 42 score you got a 0/10 - that itself makes the 42 impossible since the max score is 50 so I suspect a math error (and from the comments, a novice judge). I'm sorry, this is going to hurt: Given the comments, I find the lower scores to be more realistic. Suggestions for improvement based on what I read: Check your sanitation and fermentation temperature control.

 

[Mark D Pirate]

I noticed the 0/10 as well and wondered how they got 42 .
The comment of only needing a tiny extra bitterness supports the score though .
What did the other judges on the table say about same beers ?

 

[GFHomebrew]

Same here if the beer scored 42 up to that point an overall impression of more than 0 would be likely. As nosey said someone went big on aroma/flavour section and run outta points.

 

[Hawkbox]

It was an 8. Bad cropping sorry. I’ll post the PDFs when I get home.

 

[GFHomebrew]

It was an 8. Bad cropping sorry. I’ll post the PDFs when I get home.

A 42 is good id take that. Its why we subject our selves to the correctivee criticism to improve or brewing. Mate my scores counted recently at my local comp and it was my second comp. So check if its a BJCP judge before taking it too seriously.

I want the hard feedback personally you won't improve without some blatant honesty. Right?

 

[Hawkbox]

I do but when I get severely conflicting information which do I trust? Do I completely revamp something that was working well and just got a snippy judge? Or did i get a judge that was high on cough syrup during the good judging?

Results from the non local comp are one big PDF here.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ltqfnuy071bbghd/28_CH#CK#D@20180517033400.pdf?dl=0

The results locally are zipped here.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j3re7zy0ln93sfp/Brewing.zip?dl=0

I want to improve, but how the hell do you get such wildly divergent results?

 

[Nosybear]

My Maerzen took two gold medals, scores above 40, and a combined 24 in a third competition last fall. It's subjective, period. Taste the beer and see if you can find what the judges meant. If you can't, no big deal unless the results repeat, then you may have discovered a blind spot in your palate.

 

[Hawkbox]

Well at least it's not just me. I work in IT, I'm big on repeat-ability so this randomness bothers me at a fundamental level. I'm trying to stay objective about it but how do you improve something when you can't get the same answer twice.

 

[ChicoBrewer]

Sounds like a consultant. Can't get the same answer twice.

Scott > Manager of integrated services. Healthcare IT.

I have hobbies because I can make things I can touch. Can't touch Software lol.

This reminds me a bit of way back in college when I was taking bacteriology. I was struggling (I h8 rote memorization) and prof asked me my major. When I told him computer science he gave me a mini lecture on subjectivity versus objectivity ... Both have their place. Umpires are always subjective but they are part of the game.

Edit - IT has its subjective side too. Users find all kinds of creative ways to use software in a way it was never intended to be used.

 

[jeffpn]

I think every member of every forum on the internet works in IT. Maybe that’s what leads them to forums!